Method for preventing gate oxide damage of a trench MOSFET during wafer processing while adding an ESD protection module atop

ABSTRACT

A method and device structure are disclosed for preventing gate oxide damage of a trench MOSFET during wafer processing while adding an ESD protection module atop the trench MOSFET. The ESD protection module has a low temperature oxide (LTO) bottom layer whose patterning process is found to cause the gate oxide damage. The method includes: 
     a) Fabricate numerous trench MOSFETs on a wafer.
 
b) Add a Si 3 N 4  isolation layer, capable of preventing the LTO patterning process from damaging the gate oxide, atop the wafer.
 
c) Add numerous ESD protection modules atop the Si 3 N 4  isolation layer.
 
d) Remove those portions of the Si 3 N 4  isolation layer that are not beneath the ESD protection modules.
 
     In one embodiment, hydrofluoric acid is used as a first etchant for patterning the LTO while hot phosphoric acid is used as a second etchant for removing portions of the Si 3 N 4  isolation layer.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS Field of Invention

This invention relates generally to the field of semiconductor devicefabrication. More specifically, the present invention is directed to atechnique and associated device structure to improve semiconductordevice manufacturing yield.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

MOSFET (metal-oxide-semiconductor field effect transistor) devices havemany industrial applications, such as power amplifiers, power switchesand low noise amplifiers to name a few. For many such applications, thegate leakage current is one of the device performance parameters of keyimportance as it may impact the MOSFET drive capacity and its associatedstatic power loss. An ideal zero gate leakage current is impossible toachieve in practice. To substantially reduce the gate leakage current bytuning an existing wafer processing parameter set is known to bedifficult. Another conventional technology for reducing the gate leakagecurrent is the reduction of threshold voltage by device design to reducethe static power loss. But reduction of threshold voltage has othersystem ramifications such as a correspondingly reduced device noisemargin against a false turn-on. Hence there exists a continued need ofconsistently fabricating an MOSFET with lower gate leakage current. Thisbecomes especially important for a trench MOSFET chip where thefabrication process to integrate additional function at the same chipcan induce damage to the trench MOSFET—specifically, to the gateoxide—causing an excessive gate leakage current.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

A method for preventing a gate oxide damage of a trench MOSFET whileadding an electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection module atop thetrench MOSFET is proposed. The ESD protection module has a bottom layerwhose patterning process is known to cause the gate oxide damage to thetrench MOSFET. The method includes:

-   a) Fabricate a wafer with the trench MOSFETs on it.-   b) Identify an isolation layer material that can prevent the bottom    layer patterning process of the ESD protection modules from damaging    the gate oxide of the trench MOSFET. Form the isolation layer atop    the wafer.-   c) Add and pattern the ESD protection modules atop the isolation    layer.-   d) Remove those portions of the isolation layer that are not beneath    the ESD protection modules.

Optionally, between steps b) and c), those portions of the isolationlayer that are on top of portions of the upper body of the trench MOSFETwhose material damage would not affect the function of the trench MOSFETcan be removed.

In an embodiment where the patterning process for the bottom layer usesa first etchant, form the isolation layer of step b) further includesselecting an isolation layer material that exhibits a substantiallylower etch rate compared to that of the bottom layer while using thefirst etchant.

In another embodiment where the removal process for the isolation layeruses a second etchant, form the isolation layer of step b) furtherincludes selecting an isolation layer material that exhibits asubstantially higher etch rate compared to that of the pad oxide andgate oxide while using the second etchant.

In a more specific embodiment, the upper body of the trench MOSFET ismade of a bi-layer of a pad oxide thermally grown atop a patterned gateoxide. The pad oxide also extends over the rest of the wafer. Theselected isolation layer material is Si₃N₄ and it is formed atop the padoxide with a low pressure chemical vapor deposition (LPCVD) process. Thebottom layer is made of a patterned low temperature oxide (LTO)deposited atop the isolation layer with a low temperature depositionprocess.

In a more specific embodiment, a hydrofluoric acid (HF) is chosen toetch the LTO whereas a hot phosphoric acid (H₃PO₄) is chosen to etch theSi₃N₄.

As a more specific semiconductor device made from the aforementionedmethods, the specific device includes:

-   -   1. A semiconductor substrate with an active area and a        termination area.    -   2. A number of trench MOSFET cells fabricated in the active        area.    -   3. A number of ESD protection diodes fabricated atop the        semiconductor substrate in the termination area.    -   4. An insulation layer made of Oxide/Nitride/Oxide (ONO)        sandwiched between the ESD protection diodes and the        semiconductor substrate, the nitride layer functioning as an        oxide etching stop during the fabrication process.

These aspects of the present invention and their numerous embodimentsare further made apparent, in the remainder of the present description,to those of ordinary skill in the art.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

In order to more fully describe numerous embodiments of the presentinvention, reference is made to the accompanying drawings. However,these drawings are not to be considered limitations in the scope of theinvention, but are merely illustrative:

FIG. 1 is a perspective illustration of a semiconductor device having anESD protection module atop a trench MOSFET;

FIG. 2 is an equivalent circuit of the semiconductor device of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 illustrates a simplified I-V graph characteristic of the ESDprotection module of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a scatter plot of the wafer fabrication statistics for thesemiconductor device of FIG. 1 showing a substantial number of wafersexhibiting unacceptably high trench MOSFET gate leakage current;

FIGS. 5 through FIG. 11 illustrate a detailed wafer fabrication processof the present invention wherein an isolation layer is added between thetop of the trench MOSFET and the bottom of the ESD protection module toprevent a gate oxide damage of the trench MOSFET;

FIG. 12 is a perspective illustration of the resulting improvedsemiconductor device with the added isolation layer;

FIG. 13 is a history plot of fabrication yield vs. wafer lot sequencenumber illustrating a major improvement of the yield following animplementation of the present invention method; and

FIG. 14 illustrates a cross section of the final product using thepresent invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF SPECIFIC EMBODIMENTS

The description above and below plus the drawings contained hereinmerely focus on one or more currently preferred embodiments of thepresent invention and also describe some exemplary optional featuresand/or alternative embodiments. The description and drawings arepresented for the purpose of illustration and, as such, are notlimitations of the present invention. Thus, those of ordinary skill inthe art would readily recognize variations, modifications, andalternatives. Such variations, modifications and alternatives should beunderstood to be also within the scope of the present invention.

FIG. 1 is a perspective illustration of a semiconductor device 10 havingan ESD protection module 62 atop a trench MOSFET 50. The trench MOSFET50 has a P− epitaxial layer 59 toward its bottom upon which aresuccessive patterned layers of epitaxial MOSFET body layer 53 (N- or Ntype), P+ source regions 58 and a pad oxide 103. For simplicity, abottom substrate of the trench MOSFET 50 is omitted here. The gatestructure of the trench MOSFET 50 has a trenched gate polysilicon 101electrode separated from the epitaxial MOSFET body layer 53 by a thingate oxide 102. Atop the pad oxide 103 is the ESD protection module 62that has a number of serially connected Zener diodes embedded in apolysilicon layer 106 host with a low temperature oxide (LTO) 105 base.This is illustrated with a horizontal sequence of alternating N+ and P+regions atop the low temperature oxide (LTO) 105. FIG. 2 is anequivalent circuit of the semiconductor device 10 of FIG. 1 and FIG. 3illustrates a simplified I-V graph characteristic of the ESD protectionmodule of FIG. 1. To those skilled in the art, by now it should be clearthat the ESD protection module 62 has multiple, serially connected Zenerdiodes for protecting the gate of the trench MOSFET 50 against variousenergy levels of electrostatic discharge. In this figure, the ESDprotection module 62 has a PNPNP configuration, but any number ofserially connected Zener diodes can be used. When the voltage reaches acertain threshold value, current is diverted out through the ESDprotection module 62, thus protecting the fragile gate oxide 102. From adevice functional perspective, the trench MOSFET 50 can thus bedescribed as located within an active area whereas the ESD protectionmodule 62 can be described as located within a termination area of thesemiconductor device 10 chip.

FIG. 4 is a scatter plot of the wafer fabrication statistics for thesemiconductor device of FIG. 1 showing a substantial number offabricated wafers, the unacceptable wafer group 84, exhibitingunacceptably high trench MOSFET gate leakage current, Igss, at agate-to-source voltage of 25 volts. Here, each plotted symbol (rhombus,square, circle, cross, etc.) represents one fabricated wafer. Themeasured gate leakage current, Igss, of each wafer, in units of amperes,is expressed along the horizontal-axis. The cumulative probability ofthe wafer data, relative to the wafer population median data indicatedas zero (0), is expressed along the vertical-axis in units of sigma(standard deviation). In this case, an acceptance limit 80 was set at1.0E-6 amps (1 microampere) distinguishing an acceptable wafer group 82from the unacceptable wafer group 84. Notice that, as part of thefunction of the gate leakage current tester, all the Igss-data for theunacceptable wafer group 84 are artificially clamped to a safe low valueof 1.0E-05 amps (10 microamperes) to prevent damage to the testeritself.

Based on a number of systematic experiments (not described here), thehigh trench MOSFET gate leakage current of the unacceptable wafer group84 exhibits a high correlation with an LTO etching process that patternsthe LTO 105 layer of the ESD protection module 62. Further failureanalysis revealed poor gate oxide 102 quality at the top edge of thegate trench indicative of its material damage caused by the LTO etchingprocess. Hence, the present invention proposes to add an isolation layersandwiched between the trench MOSFET 50 and the LTO 105 to prevent theLTO patterning process from damaging the gate oxide 102. Specifically,Si₃N₄ is selected to be the isolation layer material as it exhibits asubstantially lower etch rate compared to that of the LTO 105 whileusing an LTO etchant.

FIG. 5 through FIG. 11 illustrate a detailed wafer fabrication processof the present invention where a Si₃N₄ isolation layer 104 is addedbetween the top of the trench MOSFET 50 and the bottom of the ESDprotection module 62 to prevent a gate oxide 102 damage of the trenchMOSFET 50. Again, for simplicity, a bottom substrate of the trenchMOSFET 50 is omitted from these figures.

In FIG. 5, a gate oxide 102 is thermally grown then patterned inside atop trench of an already processed bi-layer of epitaxial MOSFET bodylayer 53 and epitaxial layer 59. A trenched gate polysilicon 101 is thendeposited atop the gate oxide 102 and etched. The thickness of the gateoxide 102 can be adjusted in its growth process to suit various productrequirements.

In FIG. 6 a pad oxide 103, about 200 Å in thickness, is then thermallygrown at the top to protect both the trenched gate polysilicon 101 andthe gate oxide 102.

At this point (in FIG. 7), the proposed Si₃N₄ isolation layer 104 of thepresent invention is formed at the top to protect the pad oxide 103, andsubsequently the gate oxide 102 from a later LTO etching process. A lowpressure chemical vapor deposition (LPCVD) process can be used to formthe Si₃N₄ isolation layer 104. As an indicator of process consistencyfor high device yield, the thickness of the Si₃N₄ isolation layer 104 ismaintained at an intra-wafer uniformity of <3% tolerance and at aninter-wafer uniformity of <10% tolerance.

In FIG. 8, fabrication of the ESD protection module 62 starts with anLTO 105 deposition, about 1500 Å, atop the Si₃N₄ isolation layer 104 tofurther isolate additional upper ESD protection module 62 layers fromthe Silicon substrate. The LTO 105 can be deposited with a lowtemperature deposition process, an example being a chemical vapordeposition (CVD) at temperature typically below 500 deg C.

In FIG. 9 a polysilicon layer 106 is deposited at the top to become thehost material for the ESD protection module 62. A number of moredetailed steps of ESD polysilicon implant, ESD diode background doping,ESD polysilicon masking, formation of ESD diode areas, ESD polysilicondry etch and over etch that stops at the LTO 105 are not shown here toavoid unnecessary obscuring details that are not essential to theunderstanding of the present invention. In any case, afterwards the ESDprotection module 62 is fully formed.

FIG. 10 illustrates a highly important step of the present inventionwhere the LTO 105 outside the ESD protection module 62 area is patternedthen removed with a wet oxide etch. Here, an etch chemical should bechosen with good selectivity between the LTO 105 and the Si₃N₄ isolationlayer 104 to effect an etch stop at the Si₃N₄ isolation layer 104. Thatis, the LTO-etch chemical should further maximize a differential etchrate between the LTO 105 and the Si₃N₄ isolation layer 104 to insurethat, at the completion of the LTO patterning process, sufficient amountof Si₃N₄ is still left to protect the pad oxide 103 layer underneath. Asone specific embodiment a hydrofluoric acid (HF) is used to etch the LTO105. Starting with an original Si₃N₄ isolation layer 104 thickness ofaround 60 Å, a remaining thickness of about 34 Å is still left after theLTO etch.

FIG. 11 illustrates another highly important step of the presentinvention where the Si₃N₄ isolation layer 104 outside the ESD protectionmodule 62 area is finally removed with a wet nitride-etch. Here, an etchchemical should be chosen with good selectivity between the Si₃N₄isolation layer 104 and the pad oxide 103 to effect an etch stop at thepad oxide 103. That is, the nitride-etch chemical should furthermaximize a differential etch rate between the Si₃N₄ isolation layer 104and the pad oxide 103 to insure that, at the completion of thenitride-etch process, sufficient amount of pad oxide is still left toprotect the gate oxide 102 layer underneath. As one specific embodimenta hot phosphoric acid (H₃PO₄) is chosen to etch the Si₃N₄ isolationlayer 104. Following the completion of the Si₃N₄ isolation layer 104removal, the H₃PO₄ has only removed about 10 Å from the pad oxide 103(about 200 Å as grown) underneath thus protecting the critical damageprotection areas 120 of the gate oxide 102 from being damaged. As a sideremark regarding the critical damage protection areas 120, following thewafer processing step as depicted in FIG. 7, the present inventionallows the freedom of patterning then removing those portions of theSi₃N₄ isolation layer 104 that are on top of portions of the upper bodyof the trench MOSFET 50 whose material damage would not affect thefunction of the trench MOSFET 50, i.e., portions of the Si₃N₄ isolationlayer 104 that are not located directly above the critical damageprotection areas 120.

FIG. 12 is a perspective illustration of the resulting semiconductordevice with isolation layer 12 wherein the added Si₃N₄ isolation layer104 is now sandwiched between the LTO 105 and the pad oxide 103. Thus,the remaining pad oxide 103 still covers up and protects the criticaldamage protection areas 120 underneath. Notice the LTO 105-Si₃N₄isolation layer 104-pad oxide 103 (ONO) tri-layer also forms aneffective insulation layer between the ESD protection module 62 and thesemiconductor substrate. Again for simplicity, a bottom substrate of thetrench MOSFET 50 is omitted here.

While not graphically illustrated here, numerous other device parametersof the trench MOSFET 50 following the present invention are comparedwith those before the present invention to confirm that no otherundesirable side effects are introduced. The threshold voltage (Vth) isfound only slightly lower than before. The average drain-source on-stateresistance (Rdson) shows no difference from before. A final statisticalanalysis of Vth, Rdson and Bvdss (drain-source breakdown voltage withgate-source shorted) concludes that the device parameters shiftings areall within their allowable margin.

FIG. 13 shows a history plot of fabrication yield (%) vs. wafer lotsequence number with a dividing wafer lot 86 (lot sequence #12) markingthe introduction of the present invention. Notice the fluctuation ofyield between 59% and 99% before the dividing wafer lot 86. Followingthe dividing wafer lot 86 the yield remains consistently above 94%.Expressed in terms of average yield, the present invention improves itfrom 82.0% to 96.2%.

Finally, FIG. 14 illustrates a cross section of the final product builtupon a substrate 60 using the present invention. The gate structure ofthe trench MOSFET 50 is built with a gate contact trench 66 atop whichis a gate contact metal 67. The trenched gate polysilicon 101 isconnected to the gate contact trench 66 in the third dimension (notshown). A channel stopper 64 delimits the active channel zone of thetrench MOSFET 50. A source contact metal 65 contacts the numerous sourceregions 58 from the top. Where isolation is required, aborophosphosilicate glass (BPSG) 63 layer is provided to isolate thesource contact metal 65 and gate contact metal 67. A top passivationlayer 70 passivates the final product wherever needed.

While the description above contains many specificities, thesespecificities should not be constructed as accordingly limiting thescope of the present invention but as merely providing illustrations ofnumerous presently preferred embodiments of this invention. To thoseskilled in the art, it should become clear that the invention isapplicable to multiple and other varieties of semiconductor devicesintegrated on a single die as well. The invention is further applicableto protecting other parts of the semiconductor device in addition to thegate oxide as illustrated here, such as a shallow polysilicon gateelectrode. The invention also expects to be applicable to other types ofsemiconductor substrate with their corresponding material set for theisolation layer and the etchants as well, such as Germanium (Ge),Silicon-Germanium (SiGe), Gallium-Arsenide (GaAs), etc.

Throughout the description and drawings, numerous exemplary embodimentswere given with reference to specific configurations. It will beappreciated by those of ordinary skill in the art that the presentinvention can be embodied in numerous other specific forms and those ofordinary skill in the art would be able to practice such otherembodiments without undue experimentation. For example, though thisapplication describes a P-channel MOSFET, the invention is equallyapplicable to N-channel MOSFETs. The scope of the present invention, forthe purpose of the present patent document, is hence not limited merelyto the specific exemplary embodiments of the foregoing description, butrather is indicated by the following claims. Any and all modificationsthat come within the meaning and range of equivalents within the claimsare intended to be considered as being embraced within the spirit andscope of the present invention.

1. A method for preventing a gate oxide damage of a trench MOSFET duringwafer processing while adding an electrostatic discharge (ESD)protection module atop the trench MOSFET, said ESD protection modulehaving a bottom layer whose patterning process is known to cause thegate oxide damage to the trench MOSFET, the method comprises: a)providing a wafer with a plurality of the trench MOSFETs fabricatedthereon; b) adding an isolation layer, capable of preventing the bottomlayer patterning process from damaging the gate oxide of the trenchMOSFET, atop the wafer; and c) adding and patterning the ESD protectionmodules atop the isolation layer.
 2. The method for preventing a gateoxide damage of claim 1 further comprises: d) removing those portions ofthe isolation layer that are not beneath the ESD protection modules. 3.The method for preventing a gate oxide damage of claim 1 furthercomprises, between step b) and step c): b1) removing those portions ofthe isolation layer that are on top of portions of the upper body of thetrench MOSFET whose material damage would not affect the function of thetrench MOSFET.
 4. The method for preventing a gate oxide damage of claim2 wherein the patterning process for the bottom layer uses a firstetchant and, correspondingly, adding an isolation layer furthercomprises selecting an isolation layer that exhibits a substantiallylower etch rate compared to that of the bottom layer while using thefirst etchant.
 5. The method for preventing a gate oxide damage of claim4 wherein the removal process for the isolation layer uses a secondetchant and, correspondingly, adding an isolation layer furthercomprises selecting an isolation layer that exhibits a substantiallyhigher etch rate compared to that of the gate oxide while using thesecond etchant.
 6. The method for preventing a gate oxide damage ofclaim 2 wherein said gate oxide damage would lead to an excessiveleakage current through the trench MOSFET and, correspondingly, addingan isolation layer further comprises selecting an isolation layer thatis capable of preventing the bottom layer patterning process fromcausing damage to the gate oxide.
 7. The method for preventing a gateoxide damage of claim 6 wherein the wafer is made of Silicon.
 8. Themethod for preventing a gate oxide damage of claim 7 wherein the trenchMOSFET is an N-channel MOSFET or a P-channel MOSFET.
 9. The method forpreventing a gate oxide damage of claim 8 wherein the upper body of thetrench MOSFET is made of a bi-layer of a pad oxide atop a gate oxide.10. The method for preventing a gate oxide damage of claim 9 whereinsaid gate oxide is thermally grown atop the wafer during waferprocessing.
 11. The method for preventing a gate oxide damage of claim10 wherein said pad oxide is thermally grown atop the gate oxide. 12.The method for preventing a gate oxide damage of claim 9 wherein thebottom layer is made of a low temperature oxide (LTO) deposited with alow temperature deposition process.
 13. The method for preventing a gateoxide damage of claim 12 wherein the patterning process for the LTO usesan etchant and, correspondingly, adding an isolation layer furthercomprises selecting an isolation layer that exhibits a substantiallylower etch rate compared to that of the LTO.
 14. The method forpreventing a gate oxide damage of claim 13 wherein selecting anisolation layer further comprises using a Si₃N₄ layer to be theisolation layer.
 15. The method for preventing a gate oxide damage ofclaim 14 wherein adding an isolation layer further comprises forming,with a low pressure chemical vapor deposition (LPCVD) process, the Si₃N₄layer atop the pad oxide.
 16. The method for preventing a gate oxidedamage of claim 15 wherein patterning the LTO further comprises choosingan LTO-etch chemical that further maximizes a differential etch ratebetween LTO and Si₃N₄ to insure that, at the completion of the LTOpatterning process, sufficient amount of Si₃N₄ is still left to protectthe pad oxide layer underneath.
 17. The method for preventing a gateoxide damage of claim 16 wherein choosing an LTO-etch chemical furthercomprises using a hydrofluoric acid (HF) to etch the LTO.
 18. The methodfor preventing a gate oxide damage of claim 16 wherein removing thoseportions of the isolation layer that are not beneath the ESD protectionmodules further comprises choosing a Si₃N₄-etch chemical that exhibits asufficient differential etch rate between Si₃N₄ and pad oxide to insurethat, at the completion of the isolation layer removal process,sufficient amount of pad oxide is still left to protect the gate oxidelayer underneath.
 19. The method for preventing a gate oxide damage ofclaim 18 wherein choosing a Si₃N₄-etch chemical further comprises usinga hot phosphoric acid (H₃PO₄) to etch the Si₃N₄.
 20. A method of formingan ESD-protected trench MOSFET device in a semiconductor substratehaving an active area and a termination area, the method comprises: a)forming a plurality of trench gates in the active area of thesemiconductor substrate; b) forming a first oxide layer on top of thesemiconductor substrate; c) forming a nitride layer over the first oxidelayer; d) forming a second oxide layer over the nitride layer; e)depositing a polysilicon layer over the second oxide layer; f) forming aplurality of ESD-protection diodes in a first portion of the polysiliconlayer that is within the termination area and removing a second portionof the polysilicon layer that is within the active area; g) removing thesecond oxide layer within the active area; and h) removing the nitridelayer in the active area.
 21. A power semiconductor device comprising: asemiconductor substrate having an active area and a termination area; aplurality of trench MOSFET cells disposed in said active area; aplurality of electrostatic discharge (ESD) diodes disposed above saidsemiconductor substrate in said termination area; and an insulationlayer comprising Oxide/Nitride/Oxide (ONO) sandwiched between said ESDdiodes and said semiconductor substrate.
 22. The power semiconductordevice of claim 21 wherein said active area contains no nitride layer.23. The power semiconductor device of claim 21 wherein said nitridelayer functions as an oxide etching stop.